Ohio Breweries by Rick Armon

It remains unclear why Ohio lawmakers opted this week to kill a proposal that would have bumped up the legal limit of alcohol in beer from 12 percent to 18 percent. I left messages for two senators and one representative who served on the conference committee that removed the language from the state budget bill. None returned my calls. Staff members said they don't know. Theories range from lobbying by big brewers such as Anheuser-Busch to objections by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. John Najeway, president of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association and co-owner of Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. in Akron, said he's not sure about the specific reason. But he doubts that Anheuser-Busch, which owns craft brewer Goose Island, would be opposed. To read my story in today's Akron Beacon Journal, click here.

William Bostwick and Jessi Rymill always considered themselves pretty handy. Despite living in urban San Francisco, they made their own bread, roasted their own coffee and made their own pickles. They also drank a lot of beer. It's only natural that they decided to learn how to make their own beer.

"So we bought a kit and made a batch, and it exploded all over our tiny apartment. That's when we realized, there has to be a better way to do this," Bostwick, a former Shaker Heights resident, said in an email.

As if the Market Garden Brewery in Cleveland hasn't gotten enough publicity from this blog already, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has a story about the new operation. To read the article, click here. Scene magazine also has a story. Click here to read it.

State lawmakers have canned a proposal to raise the legal alcohol limit for beer from 12 percent to 18 percent in Ohio. The proposal was part of the state budget bill, but a conference committee on Monday night yanked the language from the final version.

The committee also pulled a provision that would have would have allowed breweries to open tasting rooms without purchasing a separate, costly state license. Right now, breweries are permitted to sell their beer to go. But people are forbidden to drink the beer at the brewery unless the business has purchased an additional $3,906 serving license. That has really stifled the ability by production breweries from opening tasting rooms.

The Market Garden Brewery is open for business. The brewpub in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood features an outdoor beer garden with a tremendous view of the historic West Side Market. The interior has an eclectic decor. There are chandeliers hanging in the front bar area, exposed heating and ventilation ducts on the black ceiling, dark wooden floors, large fireplaces and huge pieces of wooden art on a couple walls. The brewhouse is almost hidden in the back.

A couple of friends and I stopped by Monday on the official opening night to sample the beer. There were 10 on tap, including all the usual suspects like a wheat, amber lager, pale ale and stout.

Indigo Imp Brewery, a small production brewery in Cleveland, has released a new sampler pack with some limited release beers for the summertime. The sampler contains: Firebrand, a Belgian-style India pale ale with 7.9 percent alcohol; Summer, an American pale ale with 6.4 percent alcohol; and Hefeweizen, a traditional German wheat beer with 5.2 percent alcohol. This is the third time Indigo Imp has released a small batch sampler pack. "We developed the idea as a way to offer a variety of new beer to our customers and stick with our unique small batch brewing and fermenting methods," brewer Matt Chappel said in an email. Indigo Imp uses an open fermentation process. The pack should be available at Heinen's grocery stores, West Point Market in Akron and Mustard Seed Market in the Akron area.

The Acme Fresh Market on Bailey Road in Cuyahoga Falls has added growler sales. It's the second store in the Akron-based grocery chain to start offering draft beer to go. The other is on Manchester Road in Coventry Township just south of Akron. The Cuyahoga Falls location has six rotating taps. "We've had a lot of positive comments from customers," said Jon Albrecht, the beer buyer for Acme. The reusable growler costs $3.99. The beer is extra and the cost depends on the brand. The top-seller so far at the Cuyahoga Falls store is Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. Acme updates its Facebook page each Friday to let customers know what's available. To see the offerings, click here. "If we find something that's hot, we stick with it for a little bit," Albrecht said.

Richard "Dick" Yuengling Jr. got some unsettling advice when he first joined the family business as a teen, according to a new profile in the Allentown Morning Call newspaper. He was told: "You ought to go out and do something else because we're barely making payroll." More than 50 years later, Yuengling is running the brewery, D.G. Yuengling and Son. The brewery has an almost cult-like following and recently announced plans to move into the Ohio market later this year -- to the sheer joy of plenty of Ohioans. To read the entire story, click here.

The long-awaited Market Garden Brewery is serving beer. The brewpub officially opens Monday but the doors opened earlier over the weekend. The brewery is located in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood -- one of the best places in the world to get a beer, according to a travel story in USAToday earlier this year. The brewmaster is Andy Tveekrem, who previously has worked at Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Frederick Brewing Co. and Great Lakes Brewing Co. Market Garden features an outdoor beer garden that looks onto the famous West Side Market. The brewpub also is across the street from the Bier Market and Bar Cento, and around the corner from Great Lakes Brewing.

The music website Spinner has an entertaining list of the top 10 songs in beer commercials. You can even watch the ads at the website. The No. 1 comes from a 2006 Guinness ad featuring The Rhythm of Life with Sammy Davis Jr. "Music and beer have always complemented each other, be it making the tunes sound better or the lager taste, uh, tastier," the website says. "Hence the reason why so many beer companies ditch the humorous approach in their ads and go straight for songs they believe will encourage the buyer to pick up their brand the next time they're jonesing for a bottle of party suds." To check out Spinner's list, go to: http://www.spinner.com/2011/06/23/top-10-songs-beer-commercials/.

A man in Northwest Ohio paid $740 this week to buy the first can of beer ever sold at the Putnam County Fair in Ottawa. The beer normally sells for $2.50. Lanny Wagner of Continental bought the beer during an auction that helped raise money for the fair. He also picked up a neon sign. "I plan to have it hung at the Continental American Legion Hall," he told the Lima News. There is a major, major hole in the news reporting of this story. The Lima News and other media never reported what brand of beer it was.

Ohio Brew Week in Athens is expanding by a couple of days this year. The sixth annual event that highlights Ohio-made beer kicks off July 8 with a special "Sneak Preview" reception from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Dairy Barn Cultural Arts Center. The next day, the Ohio University Inn will hold a barbecue at 6 p.m. with live music and Elevator Brewing Co. beers.

“Increased demand from the public for more craft-brew activities prompted OBW to expand,” Executive Director Dan Gates said in a prepared statement. “Ohio Brew Week has become an economic enginer for this region and is good for Athens,” he added.

I've developed a new 20-question quiz on Ohio breweries. This one involves brewery logos. And, at least in my opinion, this quiz is much easier than the other test. Just click on "Ohio Beer Quiz Part II" at the top of this blog and see if you can match the logo with the right brewery.

New Belgium Brewing Co. last week announced it's expanding into Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. So where does that leave Ohio? "Unfortunately, we aren't quite ready to begin distribution to Ohio," spokeswoman Tiffany Connor said in an email. She went on to say that the company is looking into expanding its brewing facilities to produce more beer. "This would eventually enable us to fully expand across the country," she said. "Hopefully one day soon, Ohioans will be able to purchase New Belgium beer at their favorite corner market. We appreciate everyone's patience." New Belgium, based in Fort Collins, Colo., makes such brands as Fat Tire, 1554 and Abbey. It's the third-largest craft brewer in the U.S. and the seventh overall, according to the Brewers Association.

The website Road Trips for Beer has named Ohio Brew Week in Athens as one of the top 10 summer beer festivals for 2011. "Ohio has a booming craft beer scene and this will be a great road trip to experience it all," editor Gerard Walen wrote. The event is July 8-16. The others are: San Diego International Beer Festival, Atlanta Summer Beer Fest, Empire Beer Fest in Syracuse, Michigan Summer Beer Festival in Ypsilanti, WaZoo in Tampa, Bluegrass and Beer Festival in Keystone, Colo., Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison, High Country Beer Fest in Boone, N.C., and Munich Oktoberfest in Germany. To read all the explanations, click here. I'll have a complete rundown of Ohio Brew Week details later this week.

The Moerlein Lager House is under construction in Cincinnati and still slated for a November opening. The brewpub will be located along the Ohio River right next to Great American Ballpark where the Reds play. Christian Moerlein President and Chief Executive Officer Greg Hardman shared two photos with me. (See below) Others may not see beauty in those steel beams, but Hardman does. His passion is to restore Cincinnati's grand brewing tradition. (In addition to owning the Christian Moerlein brands, he produces Little Kings, Hudepohl and Burger Classic.) Christian Moerlein also is opening a production brewery in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood near downtown. The production brewery, which is slated to fully open in October, will focus on the high-end Christian Moerlein brands and big beers. "Things are going great, man," Hardman said when asked for an update. "It's going to be spectacular."

Beer prices jumped a few years ago thanks to a hop shortage. This year, prices may rise because of a possible barley shortage. The Toronto Sun has a story saying that a late-developing barley crop -- thanks to the crummy weather -- may produce the second-smallest harvest in nine years in Canada. The country is the world's biggest exporter of malting barley, the newspaper says. “Biggest factor will be harvest (weather),” Lorelle Selinger, manager of barley marketing and sales for the Wheat Board, told the newspaper. “Quality will be the big question.” To read the full story, click here.

Sierra Nevada, the second largest craft brewer in the U.S., is closing in on picking a site to build a second brewery in the East to complement its Chico, Calif., location. The company apparently has narrowed its choice down to the Knoxville, Tenn., and Roanoke, Va., areas, according to a story published this week in the Roanoke Times. The Tennessee site is No. 1, the newspaper said. So what's this got to do with Ohio? Well, Sierra Nevada looked at a couple of sites in the Buckeye State for its new $75 million to $100 million brewery, according to a source. Which sites? I don't know. The Ohio Department of Development declined to comment on whether the state was a player in trying lure the company here. Bethany McCorkle, a spokeswoman with the state agency, would only say: "Job creation is our most important focus right now. We're trying to recruit jobs to Ohio." A recent email to the Sierra Nevada spokesman wasn't returned, and he's now out of the office until June 27. The spokesman was quoted in the Roanoke newspaper saying the company would make a decision about its expansion plans within a month or so.

Gordon Biersch Biersch Restaurant and Brewery in Columbus will hold a special tapping from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. June 23 for its new summer beer called SommerBrau. The beer is a kolsch style. "Kolsch literally means the beer of Cologne, Germany," brewer Chris Alltmont said in an email. "This beer style is a light bodied beer fermented using a special top fermenting yeast strain, which we import specially from Germany, brewing it true to style. It is brewed with 80 percent pale-malted barley and 20 percent malted wheat. The pintpoint bitterness of the German Tettnang hops and crisp finish make this beer perfect for summertime enjoyment." The beer is low alcohol at 4.8 percent and is expected to be available through July.

Charles Joseph Koch Jr., the father of Boston Beer Co. founder Jim Koch and a former brewer at several Ohio breweries, has died. He was 88. Mr. Koch, who served on the board of directors for the Boston Beer Co., died June 13 at the family farm in Georgetown, Ohio. "He contributed his immense knowledge of brewing, as well as his sound business advice," according to a news release issued by the company. "But his greatest gift lay in an old trunk stored in his attic. That trunk contained family brewing memorabilia and beer recipes dating back to the 1800s. Indeed, he handed over to his son what he considered the best of the family beer recipes. That beer was first brewed in 1984 and soon appeared in taverns and restaurants in Boston under the name Samuel Adams Boston Lager. The success of Samuel Adams Boston Lager is widely credited as a catalyst for the American craft beer revolution." A Cincinnati native, Mr. Koch graduated from Withrow High School and the University of Cincinnati. He became the fifth generation of eldest Koch sons to become a brewer. He apprenticed at many Cincinnati breweries, including Wiedemann, Hudepohl, Burger, Bavarian and Schoenling. He also was the brewmaster at the Wooden Shoe Brewing Co. in Minster when it closed in 1953. To read the entire company statement, click here.

Rockmill Brewery will hold an open tasting from 1 to 4 p.m. June 25 at the brewery, which is situated on an 11-acre former horse farm just outside of Lancaster. The custom-made brewhouse is in the former stables. Rockmill -- which specializes in Belgian-style farmhouse ales -- has one of the most beautiful brewery settings in Ohio. It sits among rolling farmland and next to the headwaters of the Hocking River. There's not a commercial building within sight. The brewery was recently featured in 614 magazine and you can read the full story by clicking here.

The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad will hold its next "Ales on Rails" event at 7 p.m. July 15. Ales on Rails is a two-hour beer tasting on a train ride through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The train departs from Akron's Northside Station. The tasting involves five beers from Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. in Akron, along with an appetizer accompanying each beer. The cost is $45 per person for a coach seat; $65 per person for a first-class seat that includes tables; or $80 per person for an executive class seat that includes arm chairs and couches. Participants receive a commemorative tasting glass. You can buy tickets at online at the railroad's website.

Thirsty Dog Brewing Co.'s Barrel Aged Siberian Night took home the People's Choice award last weekend at the Brewer's Brawl sponsored by Fat Head's Brewery and Saloon in North Olmsted. The beer is a Russian imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels and has about 11 percent alcohol. The Fat Head's event features high-powered beers. The winner receives a giant gold boxing glove. "It's nice to get the People's Choice award," said John Najeway, co-owner of Thirsty Dog. "Especially because (Fat Head's brewer) Matt Cole puts on a great event and he loves big beers ... That means more than a lot of rankings because it's from the people." He noted that the beer is available on draft at the brewery. Fat Head's co-owner Paul Siperke said a total of 336 people attended both tasting sessions. The Cleveland Food and Brews blog has a rundown of the event, complete with photos. Click here to check out the coverage.

Shane Green and Matt Mazur of Columbus won Barley's Brewing Co.'s 15th annual homebrew competition last weekend. Their beer was based on Russian River's Pliny the Elder, a double India pale ale. Next year at this time, their beer will go on tap at Barley's downtown location. "I sure am looking forward to brewing this one," brewmaster Angelo Signorino said in an email. The other finalists, in no particular order, were: Gautam Bagchi with a traditional bock; Joe McIntyre with a blonde ale; Michael Byrne with a Baltic porter; Matt Hilholen with a chocolate hazelnut robust porter; and Shane Green again for an American barleywine. Barley's received 57 entries this year.

Lager Heads Brewing Co., the brewpub just north of Medina in Northeast Ohio, has started bottling its beer. The Tyranny APA, Barnburner Lager, Bed Head Red and Half Moon Hefeweizen are now available in 22-ounce bottles at retailers such as the West Point Market, Giant Eagle, Heinen's and some Buehler's stores. "It's unbelievable ... knowing that bottle was just in our brewery a short time ago," co-owner Matt Kiene said. "It is very rewarding for all of the people that helped get that bottle on the shelf." Lager Heads opened in 2004 as a barbecue joint and added the brewery last year. Below is the label for the Barnburer Lager:

J.F. Walleye's Microbrewery owners Chris Zeitler and Marika Gross discuss their beer in 2010. Don't be confused when Chris talks about the Light and Dark beers there. Those are the actual names of the beers. Since this video was taken, they have hired a new brewer:

Stow residents got all excited this week when it was reported by Patch.com and the Stow Sentry website that Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. in Akron was interested in opening a restaurant in their community. Alas, it's not true. Thirsty Dog used to operate several brewpubs in Ohio, but they have long since closed. Only the brewery itself survived. Thirsty Dog co-owner John Najeway said that a former business partner filed paperwork with the Ohio Secretary of State's Office to incorporate the business name: Thirsty Dog Grill. "That's not us," Najeway said. He added that "they've been asked to cease and desist" from using that name.

Shane and Jacqui Creepingbear fell in love after making their first batch of hombrewed beer in 2004. Not only with each other, but with the beer industry as well apparently. As the couple traveled the globe, they made sure they visited breweries along the way. They decided that their small community of Yellow Springs in southwest Ohio and home of their alma mater Antioch College needed a brewery of its own. "It soon became apparent to us that we were going to be the people to make it happen," Shane said. The Creepingbears hope to open the Vitruvian Brewing Co. in the next nine to 12 months. "This venture will bring something special and unique to our already well-known town that will help to develop and support this community that we love," said Shane, who works in admissions at Antioch College. "We think that it has potential to get access to an untapped local market." The brewery will focus on production only, serving local restaurants and bars. There will be no brewpub, but they want to have a tasting room.

In case you're wondering about the name, it has plenty of significance. It's an homage to the Vitruvian Man -- Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing that is referred to as the "Canon of Proportions." Antioch College's logo is often referred to as Vitruvian A and resonates with alumni. "We tie da Vinci's Vitruvian Man in with a practice that we have learned to embrace through our interdisciplinary learning experience at Antioch," Shane said. "We see the work as a method of tying science directly to the arts. We both know it takes a good deal of both science and art to create a good beer. To sum up my rant, we hope to takes these aspects and put that quality and effort into our beer, combining science and art in a way that will ultimately lead to our brew meeting the standard of something that might be considered the 'Canon of Proportions' of beer. We hope to make it as epic as it sounds." To check out the brewery Facebook page, click here.

Fat Head's Brewery and Saloon in North Olmsted will hold its 2011 Brewer's Brawl on June 11. The festival features two tasting sessions: from 1 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $30 in advance or $35 at the door. You get a souvenir tasting glass and 15 three-ounce samples. There also will be live music, and food and T-shirts for additional cost. The event features a "People's Choice" award. The winner gets the "Golden Brewer's Glove." Brewer Luke Purcell of Great Lakes Brewing won last year for Lake Erie Monster Imperial IPA. The participating breweries are: Fat Head's, Willoughby Brewing, The Brew Kettle, Thirsty Dog, Bell's, Cornerstone, Rocky River, Pennyslvania, Buckeye, Founders, Great Lakes, Stone, Bear Republic, Cellar Rats, Lagerheads and Columbus. For more details, call 440-801-1001.

The Finger Lakes region in Upstate New York is known for wine. But there are some pretty nice breweries scattered throughout. (Including Wagner Valley, which last I looked was the only combination winery-brewery there.) The breweries have always been overshadowed by the wineries, which each year attract massive amounts of tourists. A group of breweries is hoping to raise their profile as well and have started the Finger Lakes Beer Trail. The trail extends from Syracuse to Rochester. "Our mission is to increase the visibility and reputation of our local craft brewing and beer culture," co-creator Theresa Hollister told the Elmira Star-Gazette, noting the trail has been patterned after the successful Finger Lakes wines model. Given the amount of breweries in Ohio -- 50 and growing -- it's amazing that there's no organized beer trail in the Buckeye State. To read the Elmira Star-Gazette story, click here.

The Akron Zoo will hold two "Brew at the Zoo" events from 6 to 9 p.m. June 15 and July 20. Guests can enjoy beer tastings from several local breweries, light snacks and live music. The cost for each event is $15 for zoo members and $21 for non members. The samples will be available at no charge and full-size beers will be available for $3. For the June 15 event, visitors can taste a variety of beers from Indigo Imp Brewery, Thirsty Dog Brewing Co., Ohio Brewing Co., Chardon BrewWorks & Eatery and Rocky River Brewing Co. The cover band, Half Moon Jack, will perform at the education center, Komodo Kingdom. Breweries for the July 20 event include Indigo Imp, Thirsty Dog, Ohio and Rocky River. DJ Kenny Kidd will perform live. For more details or to register, call 330-375-2550 ext. 7231 or visit online at http://www.akronzoo.org/.

Alexander Keith's, the Nova Scotia brewery owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, is moving into the U.S. market with three new beers: Nova Scotia Style Lager, Nova Scotia Style Pale Ale and Nova Scotia Style Brown Ale. Alas, it doesn't seem like they are available now in Ohio. Alexander Keith's brewmaster emeritus Graham Kendall will hold a video beer tasting live from the brewery at 8 p.m. Tuesday on Facebook. (Click here for the Alexander Keith's Facebook page and then click on the Livestream tab to watch if you're so inclined.) The beers are being made at the Anheuser-Busch plant in Baldwinsville, N.Y. Alexander Keith, by the way, was a real guy. He born in 1795 in Scotland. At 17, he started a five-year brewing apprenticeship in England. After moving to Nova Scotia in 1817, he started Keith's Brewery in Halifax. "Alexander Keith's brands continue to be brewed under the guiding principles of our founder and the strong sense of adventure found in the people of Nova Scotia," Kendell said in a prepared statement.

Think you know a lot about the Ohio beer industry? Try your hand at these 25 questions. Be warned, though. They aren't easy. You'll find out the answers at the end. (This quiz also is pinned at the top of this blog.)

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has an entertaining multi-media quiz about beer. You're given a couple of written clues and a portion of a beer label and asked to identify the brewery. Thanks to Marc Bona, the Cleveland Plain Dealer beer writer, for passing it along. Both he and I scored 14 out of 15. Some of the questions are quite easy to anybody who knows beer. (My one miss was a case of feeling cocky and premature clicking. That's the story I'm sticking with.) To take the quiz, click here.

Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. in Akron will host a special "Pints for Prostates" event from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday at its tasting room. The goal is to raise awareness about prostate cancer, co-owner John Najeway said. Free pint glasses will be given away for donations and there will be beer specials. The brewery accepts only cash, though. So don't come with a credit card. For more details about the Pints for Prostates cause -- dubbed as "Reaching Men Through the Universal Language of Beer" -- click here.

I figured that I did all this work to gather video clips of brewers and brewery owners in Ohio that I might as well display them on the front of this blog. You'll find many other clips already available on the "Videos-Photos" page but I'm going to start loading new videos here as well. Here's Greg Hardman, president and CEO of Christian Moerlein in Cincinnati:

The Ohio media have made a big hoopla this week over a proposal to increase the legal alcohol limit for beer in the state from 12 percent to 18 percent. (My local story has yet to run in the Akron Beacon Journal so look for that soon.) But there's another beer-related provision in the proposed state budget that has escaped attention. It would allow production breweries to open tasting rooms without purchasing a separate, costly state license. Right now, breweries are permitted to sell their beer to go. But people are forbidden to drink the beer at the brewery unless the business has purchased an additional $3,906 license. That has really stifled the ability of production breweries from opening tasting rooms. (Brewpubs are a different animal.) Given the high cost of a brewing license, brewers have argued for years that customers should be able to drink their beer at the brewery without paying for another license. That issue was one of the reasons for the creation of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association a few years ago. The change would be a great help to production brewers such as Thirsty Dog Brewing and Hoppin' Frog Brewery in Akron. "There are so many laws left from Prohibition and one by one we need to look at them," said John Najeway, co-owner of Thirsty Dog and president of the state association.

Ever want to sit down with a professional brewer and pick his -- or her -- brain about his beer? You know, why did you make this style? Or what type of hops did you use? Well, Marietta Brewing Co. gives you that chance every Sunday from 4 to 8 p.m. The Marietta brewpub began its "Meet the Brewer" program about a month ago. It's casual and not an organized talk. "If people would like to come in and grab a bite to eat and a few beers, I usually go up to their table and just small talk," brewer Mike Arnold said in an email. "If they have any questions, which they usually do when I introduce myself as the brewer, then I answer their questions." The goal is to educate folks about the craft beer industry. Anybody spotted sipping a Budweiser, Miller or Coors also is given a chance to sample the locally made beer. "It's really cool when a person is drinking a Big Three beer and after talking to them, they have a pint of craft beer in their hand," Arnold said. (You can check out a video of Arnold on the "Video-Photos" page on this blog.)

A state senator is proposing to boost Ohio's legal limit for alcohol in beer from 12 percent to 18 percent. The provision was tucked into the proposed state budget Tuesday, according to the Columbus Dispatch. State Sen. Jimmy Stewart, R-Albany, told the newspaper that he got the idea after talking with Jackie O's Pub and Brewery in Athens -- a brewpub well known for experimenting. "They as well as other small breweries would be very excited about making some products on a limited basis with a higher alcohol content," Stewart told the Dispatch. "This is a very small niche market and very expensive craft beers that are more for the aficionados." To read the full story, click here.